Strider (CPS-1)/Reception
Strider was generally well received by critics and fans alike and is fondly remembered, having spawned numerous fansites and retrospectivesPlasket, Michael. "Strider". Hardcore Gaming 101. Accessed December 21, 2009.Horowitz, Ken (31 May 2005). "History of: The Strider Series". Sega-16.com. Accessed December 21, 2009.Fahs, Travis (August 20, 2008). "The Shrouded Past of Strider Hiryu". IGN. Accessed December 21, 2009.. Upon its completion, however, Kouichi Yotsui felt that Strider wasn't anything that hadn't been done beforeScion; Dire 51 (April 24, 2010). "Interview with Kouichi "Isuke" Yotsui". LSCM 4.0. Translated by Gaijin Punch. Accessed October 24, 2010.. He believed certain programmed elements, like StrobayaTane, Kiyofume (February 2009). "The Father of Strider Who Made the Game World Explode: Kouichi Yotsui Discography". Gameside (16). Translated by Gaijin Punch for Gamengai. Retrieved from Archive.org. Accessed January 18, 2020. and the Options, did not work as he had hoped. It was rumored inside Capcom that its production costs and delays had negatively affected sales. Under the impression that Strider was an unsuccessful game, Yotsui left Capcom for Takeru ( ), along with Akira Kitamura and Shinichi Yoshimoto.CRV (August 21, 2009). "Company:Takeru". GDRI. Accessed October 24, 2010. Critical Reception The Arcade game was received positively among critics of its time, often praising its "smooth and fast" animationSmith, Andy (October 1989). "Screen Play: Strider". Amiga Format (03). Pg. 36-37., "brillant movements"Staff (April 1989). "Arcades: Strider". CU Commodore User Amiga-64. Pg. 90-91., "marvelous gameplay" and "wonderful graphics".Rignall, Julian (January 1990). "Strider". Computer & Video Games (94). Pg. 16-17. Matt Bielby from Your Sinclair scored the Arcade coin-op a 89, stating the game was "absolutely brilliant" and praising the spectacular leaps and other actions the player can perform "even under the clumsiest control", and referring to its set pieces as being imaginativeBielby, Matt (August 1989). "Slots of Fun". Your Sinclair (44). Pg. 75., and the next year included it in its "Top of the Slots '89" listBielby, Matt (March 1990). "Slots of Fun". Your Sinclair (51). Pg. 85.. Commodore User gave the game a score of 8/10 and told its readers it'd be hard to resist its "wonderful combination of high definition graphics, brilliant movements and good old-fashioned blasting action". Writing for magazine Crash, Mark Caswell referred to the game's graphics as detailed and incredible, referred to the scrolling and action as smoothly and called the gameplay "some of the most demanding gameplay ever invented"Caswell, Mark (May 1989). "Arcade Action". Crash (64). Pg. 63.. All Media Guide ranked the game 4/5 stars."Strider". allgame.com. Retrieved from Archive.org. Accessed January 18, 2020. In Japan, the Arcade game received a number of prizes by gaming magazine Gamest. In 1989, Strider ranked in 5 different categories in their annual video game awards event Gamest Grand Prix: 4th in the overall "Gamest Grand Prix", 5th in "Best Graphics", 3rd in "Best VGM" and 1st in "Best Action" and "Best Direction"Staff (December 27, 1989). "3RD Gamest Grand Prix". Gamest (41). Pg. 68-79.. The game also ranked 22nd in "Best 100 games of the Year", and several characters also placed well in the "Best Characters" category: Hiryu at the lead in 3rd place, followed by Tong Pooh (13th), the Option A (21th), Grandmaster Meio (25th), Ouroboros (30th) and Strobaya (39th). A few years later, Strider ranked 9th in the "Top 30 Readers' Choice" from Gamest's special issue "The Best Game".Staff (June 19, 1991). "Top 30 Readers' Choice (+30)". Gamest Extra: The Best Game (60). Pg. 18. Due to its popularity, Strider was ported to virtually every home system then in existence, with the version for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis receiving just as much praise for its faithfulness to the original. Influence Strider's influence on the industry continues to be felt in both direct and indirect ways. Kouichi Yotsui has himself revisited its concepts twice: Mitchell Corporation's 1996 arcade game Cannon-Dancer (localized in the West as Osman), and Square-Enix's 2010 downloadable title Moon Diver. Other game companies have tried to make their own Strider: Atlus made a serviceable imitation for the SNES in 1993 titled Run Saber, and the aesthetics of Team17's Amiga game Assassin owes much to Strider.Staff (September 4, 2018). "Team17’s 100 Games – Part One: 1991-92 (Full Contact, Alien Breed, Assassin & more)". team17.com. Accessed January 30, 2020 Strider was also influential among European developers: platform titles including Assassin, Zool: Ninja of the Nth Dimension''Habgood, Jacob; Nielsen, Nana; Rijks, Martin (October 18, 2010). ''The Game Maker's Companion (English). Chapter 6, pg. 159. ISBN 1-43022-826-1. and WolfchildWolfchild entry in creator Simon Phipps' official website. Accessed January 18, 2020 were influenced in either gameplay or aesthetics in the original Arcade coin-op, and it was popular enough for U.S. Gold and Tiertex to pursue their own licensed European-made sequel. In later years several indie developers have published platformers carrying the gameplay style of Strider, with titles such as Oniken''Pinsof, Allistair (July 06, 2012). "Review: Oniken". ''destructoid.com. Accessed January 18, 2020, Cataegis: The White Wind''Acido Cinza (September 25, 2015). Cataegis: The White Wind press release. Retrieved from gamasutra.com. Accessed January 18, 2020., ''Tänzer''Mega Cat Studios (May 27, 2018)."Kickstarter page for ''Tänzer. Accessed January 18, 2020.Adcock, Dan (2019). "Tanzer Review (Sega Genesis)". pixelatedgamer.com. Accessed January 18, 2020, Chrome Blazing''Kohaku, Wolfie (July 19, 2019). "Blazing Chrome – Steam Review: Contra in everything but name.". ''queuetimes.com. Accessed January 18, 2020. and Bushiden''Devore, Jordan (September 28, 2018). "Bushiden looks like a slick ninja action game". ''destructoid.com. Accessed January 18, 2020 showing gameplay and designs reminiscent of the fast-action, acrobatic-like style of the 1989 original. The game and its world has also served as a point of inspiration: Keiji Inafune, the father of Mega Man, has said in an interview that he has always liked the "world view" of Strider and modeled the name of Mega Man X co-protagonist Zero after one of its characters (reportedly, Solo)November 18, 2007. Capcom, Holding of the Rockman 20th Anniversary Event. Keiji Inafune, New "Rockman" in Production (Japanese). GameWatch.. It has also been said that the game's villain Tong Pooh served as inspiration for Street Fighter's very own Chun-Li.Capcom. Official Marvel vs. Capcom website (Japanese). Support Characters Introduction. Retrieved from Archive.org. Accessed May 29, 2013. More indirectly, the over-the-top action of Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe harkens back to Strider, particularly in their inclusion of the "boss rush"Jones, Darran (24 Apr 2010). "The Making of... Strider". Retro Gamer (76). pp. 48-53. , character animation sets in 2001's PlayStation 2 action-RPG Dark Angel: Vampire Apocalypse drew inspiration from several games, Strider among themStaff (July 22, 1999). Dark Angel Preview (English). GameSpot. Accessed May 29, 2013; and the 2019 Nintendo Switch video game 198X features one mini-game (Shadowplay) modeled after Strider and the experiences of playing it for the first time.Furuya, Yoichi (January 23, 2020). ""198X" is a work depicting the experience of falling in love with games. Director talks about his love of 1980s Arcade games." (Japanese). famitsu.com. Accessed January 30, 2020 References Category:Subpages Category:Strider Subpages